U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used a D-Day commemoration speech on Saturday to warn Europe about an invasion of “dangerous ideologies,” urging the continent to act against mass immigration.
Speaking on the 82nd anniversary of the June 6, 1944, Allied beach landings in Normandy, Hegseth said: “Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different, dangerous ideologies — beaches in Spain, in Italy, in Greece and Bulgaria; boats and men arrive.”
“When will European capitals do something about that invasion? Or is it too late? I pray not, and I believe not,” Hegseth said in his speech at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer in northwestern France.
The D-Day ceremony commemorated the 1944 landings in Normandy, when U.S. and Allied forces crossed the English Channel to launch the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi occupation.
Hegseth’s remarks echoed comments by other American officials, including U.S. President Donald Trump, who have criticized European countries for failing to control immigration. Washington in December, in its National Security Strategy, warned that Europe faced potential “civilizational erasure” driven by migration, weakening national identities and government policies that allegedly undermine sovereignty.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Friday blamed the death of a British teenager last year on the West’s “politics of self-hatred” and “the mass invasion of migrants” — comments that were quickly denounced by the U.K. government.
Saying that each Allied country “pulled its weight” in the D-Day invasion, Hegseth on Saturday also called on European governments to step up their commitment to defense capabilities.
“America will lead. We must,” Hegseth said. “But capable allies must be right there with us, shoulder to shoulder, in the breach, when it matters,” he stressed.
“We stand by our allies. And we expect our allies capable and ready to stand along side us,” Hegseth said.